FAITH UPDATE

Faith is home from the hospital. We left the house at 4 AM and returned home around 5 PM. It was a long day and Faith did very, very well.

The doctors treated her good eye once again with laser. Instead of treating specific areas, they "peppered" a portion of her peripheral vision area (think of a clock in the area between 8:00 and 12:00) with laser to hopefully stop the irregular vessels from continuing to hemorrhage. The fear I expressed to her doctor when he came out to tell us they wanted to do laser treatment was what if it's too close to her central vision or fine vision and she wakes up blind. He strongly compassionately reassured me that this would not be the case as the area that would be treated was in the peripheral vision and Faith would most likely not even notice it. So...Scott signed the consent form for treatment.

We also tried a new approach with the eye drops that she gets before she is taken to the operating room. The drops are the absolute, positive, worst part of the whole day. Faith HATES them. There are two drops in each eye, three times, five minutes apart. It takes between three and four of us to pin her down and get the drops in. It's horrible. When she was at the hospital in the early part of March, they gave her a pre-med that should have relaxed her enough to be able to quickly get the drops in her eyes. Nope. She still fought them...and she fought hard. It absolutely breaks my heart...along with the nurses and even the doctors. So today they skipped the drops before going to the operating room and instead put her under anesthesia FIRST and then put the drops in...two in each eye, three times, five minutes apart...WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING! Easy-peasy-lemon-squeazy! This will now be part of the plan each time she goes in.

For the next week Faith must "lay-low" (or as best as we can get her to "lay-low"). She's a busy one, our Faith! However, it is spring break for us next week and I have some activities planned that will have us out-and-about and hopefully off the bike, scooter and skateboard at least part of the time. We'll try the Minnesota Zoo (a family favorite), a movie that the kids both want to see, and Paint-A-Plate for starters. I don't want to over-schedule them, but I hope to find activities that they will both enjoy and make spring break memorable for them.

But tonight...I'm exhausted. Scott is exhausted. Parker had a normal day, so he's just "regular tired"...nothing out of the ordinary. And Faith, you ask? Well, Faith is NOT tired. She slept off the anesthesia most of the afternoon in the hospital. She slept a little in the car on the way home. Scott just asked her if she was tired to which she responded, "NO!"

It's good to have everyone home tonight. Even if Faithy isn't tired, she's sleeping with me in our bed tonight. I need to have her close by me...to hear her breath and feel her wiggle (which I know for sure I will) and to just be able to reach over and touch her hand or cheek during the night. Scott will take the futon downstairs in the family room and Parker will go to his own bed. The dogs will join them. And I hope we all sleep in really, REALLY late on Saturday morning. Like even past 7 AM, maybe!

Peace and blessings to your day.
Jeanine